Skip to main content

Rendering Service Overview

Introduction​

The Rendering Service (also referred to as the Rendering Worker Service) is an application that provides worker threads for handling document rendering tasks. It connects the priint:suite Publishing Server with rendering-servers (priint:comet PDF Renderer or Adobe InDesign Server).

Target Audience: System Administrators, Technical Consultants, Developers

Functionality​

The Rendering Service provides the following functionality:

  • Processes rendering tasks from priint:bpm (Camunda workflow engine) and its dedicated topics
  • Distributes tasks to connected rendering-server instances (priint:comet PDF Renderer or Adobe InDesign Server)
  • Orchestrates document rendering operations: layout processing, PDF generation, output creation
  • Supports multiple worker threads and service instances for concurrent processing
  • Connects to priint:suite Publishing Server via Planner Engine APIs to track project config changes and report workers' and processing statuses.

Architecture​

The Rendering Service sits between priint:bpm, the Publishing Server and rendering-servers:

┌─────────────────────┐
│ priint:suite        │
│ Publishing Server   │
│                     │
│  ┌──────────────┐   │
│  │ Comet Bridge │◄──┼────┐
│  └──────────────┘   │    │
│  ┌──────────────┐   │    │
│  │Planner Engine│◄──┼────┤
│  └──────────────┘   │    │
└─────────────────────┘    │
                           │
   ┌──────────────┐        │
   │ priint:bpm   │◄─┐     │
   └──────────────┘  │     │
                     │     │
                ┌────▼─────▼──────────┐
                │ Rendering Service   │
                │                     │
                │ - Worker Threads    │
                │ - Task Management   │
                │ - Engine Connector  │
                └──────────┬──────────┘
                           │
         ┌─────────────────┼─────────────────┐
         │                 │                 │
         ▼                 ▼                 ▼
┌────────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐ ┌───────────────┐
│ PDF Renderer   │ │ PDF Renderer  │ │InDesign Server│
│  (Embedded)    │ │ (Container)   │ │  (Windows)    │
└────────────────┘ └───────────────┘ └───────────────┘

Rendering Server Options​

The Rendering Service supports three rendering-server types:

1. Embedded PDF Renderer​

The priint:comet PDF Renderer runs in the same JVM process as the Rendering Service.

  • Engine: priint:comet PDF Renderer (embedded)
  • Platforms: Windows, Linux
  • Use case: Single-server deployments, PDF output

2. Containerized PDF Renderer​

The priint:comet PDF Renderer runs in separate Docker/Podman containers.

  • Engine: priint:comet PDF Renderer (containerized)
  • Platforms: Linux (primary), Windows with Docker Desktop
  • Use case: Multi-instance deployments, cloud environments, horizontal scaling

3. Adobe InDesign Server​

Adobe InDesign Server provides full InDesign layout and rendering capabilities.

  • Engine: Adobe InDesign Server (licensed separately)
  • Platforms: Windows only (InDesign Server limitation)
  • Use case: Complex layouts requiring InDesign features

Next Steps​

To get started with the Rendering Service:

1. Install the Rendering Service​

Follow the platform-specific installation guide for your operating system:

2. Choose and Configure Your Rendering Server​

Select the rendering-server configuration:

3. Learn About Available Commands​

4. Configure Logging and Monitoring​